Brad Bird: Hollywood isn’t brave enough to copy Pixar process http://t.co/Gliw27s
It’s an interesting interview about Brad Bird’s (and Pixar’s) creative process, but I flagged it for the headline, which leads to the second question:
Category: The Business of Production
Three authors, three examples of the disruption in publishing http://t.co/ldzT3lx
Both book publishing and film/television are industries that were built on scarcity, that are being disrupted n an age of non-scarcity. That’s not to say that there isn’t success and money to be made in the traditional businesses, but book publishing is an interesting place to look for parallels to television (particularly).
How much money does it really take to make a documentary? http://tinyurl.com/3hu6abx
A good take on budgeting and how the “It takes at least $300,000” rule may not be as rigid now as it once was. Writer Edward J Delaney goes through six fundamental shifts that have changed the equation:
Storytelling: digital technology allows us to tell tales in innovative new ways http://tinyurl.com/3pwthvc
Author Aleks Krotoski starts out with the importance of story.
Stories are memory aids, instruction manuals and moral compasses. When enlisted by charismatic leaders and turned into manifestos, dogmas and social policy, they’ve been the foundations for religions and political systems. When a storyteller has held an audience captive around a campfire, a cinema screen or on the page of a bestseller, they’ve reinforced local and universal norms about where we’ve been and where we’re going. And when they’ve been shared in the corner shop, at the pub or over dinner they’ve helped us define who we are and how we fit in.
The Trivialities and Transcendence of Kickstarter http://tinyurl.com/3emfl46
The question of how to fund our various independent projects is a constant question in an era of democratized production. I’ve already written (and done a Terence and Philip Show about) branded media, because I believe that will be an important part of the funding future. But at the grassroots level, fan funding has proved successful for many artists, and in the case of Kickstarter, for projects other than music and video based.
So what kind of “creative projects†does Kickstarter enable? Well, a couple of artists raised $2,181 to send funny handwritten letters to every household in Pittsburgh’s Polish Hill neighborhood; someone pulled in $8,441 to help finance the creation of “a searchable ethnographic databasebuilt from the lyrics of over 40,000 hip-hop songsâ€; a couple of people got $30,030 to publish a version of “Huckleberry Finn†that replaces Mark Twain’s use of a notorious racial epithet with the word “robot.†At times the sums have been a good bit larger: $67,436 to build a statue of Robocopin Detroit; $161,744 to make a computer-animated adaptation of a Neil Gaiman story; and nearly $1 million in pledges to finance a band to wear iPod Nanos as wristwatches.
It’s a long article but if you care about fan funding, it’s well worth the read.
Defining quality http://tinyurl.com/3qutvb3
While Seth Godin is always worth a read, this article struck me as being very relevant in a discussion of what is a “pro” (as a proxy for quality in this context). The central point is that there is not one type of “quality” that is universally valued equally.
We see this in the wide range of entertainment and production qualities that are acceptable quality, depending on the context. A video on YouTube isn’t expected to have the same production ‘quality’ as network-disrtibuted episodic Television, and that’s how it should be.
It turns out that there are at least two useful ways to describe quality, and the conflict between them leads to the confusion…
Quality of design: Thoughtfulness and processes that lead to user delight, that make it likely that someone will seek out a product, pay extra for it or tell a friend.
Quality of manufacture: Removing any variation in tolerances that a user will notice or care about.
The responses to Final Cut Pro X a month Later. http://tinyurl.com/3wa8ahl
In this episode Terence and Philip discuss how the postproduction landscape has changed a month after Final Cut Pro X was revealed. How has the competition responded and how has the Final Cut Pro community has reacted. Lots of discussion on the launch and subsequent response to Final Cut Pro X, touching on every aspect of the release.
Why is there an emotional connection with creatives and their tools. Where do Final Cut Pro 7 users go? Who is really focused on NLEs in professional postproduction? Oh, and yes, Philip has new software for Final Cut Pro X (inspired by Terry in part).
Technicolor acquires Laser Pacific http://tinyurl.com/3v8vxfd
From Variety:
While shoring up its d-cinema distribution business with its pact with Cinedigm, Technicolor was also busy rejiggering its post-production offerings, acquiring LaserPacific and selling its post assets in New York to PostWorks.
Under the Technicolor-PostWorks deal, PostWorks acquires the Technicolor post facility on Leroy St. in Manhattan and enters an exclusive franchise agreement with Technicolor. The facility will be branded PostWorks Technicolor and will get access to Technicolor’s proprietary color science and post workflows.
The Laser Pacific facilities will be rebranded as Technicolor and their employees will become Technicolor employees.
Further consolidation of the high end of postproduction in the LA and NY markets.
My DV Expo topics
9-5 September 20 Basic Tech for Producers (and recent Film School Graduates)
In this session, technology expert and DV magazine contributor Philip Hodgetts will cover the technological choices in production and post in a non-geeky way to help producers — and others without a technical background — make good technology choices for their productions. From formats to software choices; selecting cameras to creating Web video; designing graphics that will work and much more.  PRICE: $195 ($245 after Aug 31) Click here to register now.
9-5 September 21 Using Metadata For Production and Asset Management
Metadata is becoming increasingly important throughout the production cycle–from camera to asset management. In this session learn about the types of metadata in use; how each major NLE (Final Cut Pro 7, Final Cut Pro X, Premiere Pro CS 5.5 and Media Composer 5.5) handles metadata and how we can use that metadata to speed postproduction and VFX. Once post is done, assets need to be management through through distribution and repurposing. What tools are available, how are they used and how do they fit into the metadata structures promoted by SMPTE and other standards bodies. Â PRICE: $195 ($245 after Aug 31)Â Click here to register now.
9-5 September 22 Avoiding Postproduction Nightmares
Post expert and DV magazine contributor Philip Hodgetts details the most common (and costly) problems inadvertently created during production that will be “fixed in post.†From color correction to audio, and editing to the final QC pass on deliverables, he’ll not only reveal the tricks of the trade that he’d use to save your production, but also explain how you can avoid these costly issues in the first place. PRICE: $195 ($245 after Aug 31) | Click here to register now.
In the light of full disclosure, I certainly expect to be paid but I always deliver good value. There will be some overlap between the Basic Tech and Avoiding Postproduction Nightmares sessions as they both seek to make the technology understandable, but with a different focus to each day’s class.
Back to the future: Is media returning to the 19th century? http://tinyurl.com/3te5m53 Mass media is going to become a historic anomaly.
Mathew Ingram analyzes a series of articles looking at the evolution of media in a digital age from The Economist. The premise is that mass media is a byproduct of its era. Before mass media there were hundreds of small media voices, often opinionated (just like blogs) and ultimately that’s where we’re returning with hyperlocal news and altered nature of “news”.
You should read the whole article, because it’s a good summary of The Economist articles:
As The Economist notes, up until the early 19th century there was no “mass media†in the sense that we think of the term now. Newspapers had not really been invented yet, and news still travelled via word-of-mouth, or via hand-printed pamphlets written by people likepolitical theorists Thomas Paine and John Locke. And even when newspapers as we know them started to be published and distributed, they were opinionated — and often gossip-filled — publications that catered to a tiny audience, much like blogs did when they first appeared. Says The Economist:
In many ways news is going back to its pre-industrial form, but supercharged by the internet. Camera-phones and social media such as blogs, Facebook and Twitter may seem entirely new, but they echo the ways in which people used to collect, share and exchange information in the past. “Social media is nothing new, it’s just more widespread now,†says Craig Newmark.
Although we think of “mass media†such as television, radio and newspapers as fixtures in our lives and in the media economy, says The Economist, “the mass-media era now looks like a relatively brief and anomalous period that is coming to an end.†As media and publishing become something anyone can do, whether on their blog or via other social tools such as Twitter or Tumblr, media companies are having to reinvent themselves to take advantage of this phenomenon — and to survive.
A new generation that has grown up with digital tools is already devising extraordinary new things to do with them, rather than simply using them to preserve the old models. Some existing media organisations will survive the transition; many will not.
He also talks about the risks of having only opinionated news but seems to think it’s OK if it is revealed.
Of course, the implications for the mass market media producers would, by inference not be that great. If mass markets (ultimately – not next week or anything) disappear, then the production workflows and support technologies will change as well.
The only thing we really know about the future is that it will NOT be like today.